Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cylindrical conductive belt for electrophotography, used for intermediate transfer belts or the like of electrophotographic apparatus, and also relates to an electrophotographic apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-89961 discloses a conductive endless belt used for an intermediate transfer belt of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus in which belt a polyether-ester amide is added as a high-molecular ion-conducting agent to a polyester type elastomer and/or a thermoplastic polyester resin. When compared with a case of making conductive by using as a conducting agent an electron-conductive conducting agent such as carbon black, such a belt may gently change in conductivity against the amount of the conducting agent to be added, and its electrical resistance can be controlled with ease.
Here, the polyester type elastomer or thermoplastic polyester resin and the polyether-ester amide or polyether amide are fundamentally incompatible with each other. Hence, the conductive endless belt disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-89961 takes a structure having a continuous phase constituted of a polyester type thermoplastic elastomer and discontinuous phases each constituted of a polyether-ester amide copolymer. This accords with what is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-274286 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-164674.